This is Rubbish

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TOP PICKS

The impact of food waste on climate change - some nice graphs

Defra and the department for Business, Innovation and Skills have today (March 16) committed to working together to encourage businesses to invest in the UK waste and recycling industry with the publication of a report breaking down areas of expected growth and opportunity. On food waste, the document suggests that increased access to commercial collections and the realisation of 1.7 million tonnes of organic treatment capacity currently in the planning process could prevent a significant opportunity. Furthermore, it suggests application of new technologies and increased use of digestate on land.

A countrywide food waste survey by business intelligence company, Retail Active, said that nearly three quarters of the responders said they believed their food waste had little or no consequence for the environment. Forty per cent actually think food waste is good for the economy because it keeps production moving. Seventy seven per cent said they do not consider the impact on the global environment when buying food.

Some numbers on food waste in the supply chain

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Ask restaurants they eat at what they do with their food waste.

An American cafeteria slashes food waste by getting rid of trays.

Research into bioliquids from food waste

"Chairman of the CIAA’s Environment Committee, Pascal Gréverath is at the centre of the European food industry’s sustainability effort... “Before telling people don’t eat this, don’t eat that, don’t do this, don’t do that, the first thing is to remove what is wasted, because it would really be a nonsense to tell people don’t eat this, don’t eat that and at the same time we continue to throw away 30% or maybe 40% of what is produced.”
WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) plans to ‘map’ the amount food and packaging waste generated by four representative products – sandwiches, pizza, quiche and ready meals – at key stages in the chilled and frozen supply chains.

In the US, the finger is pointed at individuals: "And while you might think a lot of that food is lost long before it gets to our kitchens, home or institutional, rejected on the farm or by a processor or distributor, that's not true. According to USDA statistics, in 1995, some 5.4 billion pounds of food were lost at the retail level, while 91 billion pounds were lost in America's kitchens, restaurants, and institutional cafeterias. ... "food-service and consumer loss make up 95 percent of all food waste, which means most of the responsibility falls on those who prepare the food we eat, whether it's a homemade meal, a dinner at a sit-down restaurant, or the Egg McMuffin we gobble down during the car ride to work." "

Belgian families accused of posing a health hazard with bins overflowing with food waste are to be offered chickens to clean up their mess, a town official said on Friday.

Under the Courtauld Commitment 2, signatories have agreed to reduce UK household food and drink waste by four per cent and to reduce traditional grocery product and packaging waste in the grocery supply chain by five per cent.

In US news: "40-50% of all food ready for harvest never gets eaten. It gets thrown into the trash or tilled under to make room for another crop to be planted. And that’s edible food -food that could feed people who need it."

Scarcity of phosphorus, used in fertilisers, will threaten global food production. "Phosphorus needs to be applied and management in agriculture more efficiently, we need to eat more vegetarian food, and increase efficiency throughout the food chain. At the same time we need to recover and reuse a large part of the phosphorus that exists in crop residues, food waste, manures human faeces and other sources."

UK restaurants aim to lead in sustainability as the Sustainable Restaurant Association launched

A £362,000 grant from the London Waste and Recycling Board will ensure that the equivalent of 800,000 meals is distributed to homeless and other vulnerable groups of Londoners by FareShare rather than ending up in the bin.

Tristram Stuart's book here and here

"Rock bottom food prices come at a cost"

Defra is looking at banning food waste from landfill - hopefully this would lead to a reduction in waste rather than just an increase in AD etc.

One of the many articles about kerb-side food waste collection

Food Standards Agency to update "use-by" and best-before" labelling guidance.

Implementation Plan to make England AD "World leaders"